Sunrises In Paradise

More Florida vacation pics. Above, the predawn sky was warming up as we entered the beach area of Amelia Island from a public access boardwalk. Time was 6:49 am EST, Thursday, February 7, 2019. Official sunrise was at 7:12 am.

6:51 am. Further approaching the beach. Looking at the shoreline through tall dune grasses.

7:07 am. On the beach. The Amelia Island pier is at right. Camera mounted on a Joby Gorilla Pod tripod in the shallow surf.

7:08 am. With surf rolling in.

7:14 am. Rising sun peaking over the Atlantic's horizon.

Similar shot one minute later.

Same location, one day later. A beach walker looks southeast at the predawn glow from near the Amelia Island pier at 6:56 am EST, Friday, February 8, 2019.

6:59 am. Wave action near the pier, with a brightening southeast sky in the background.

7:15 am. Vertical orientated capture of sunrise right of the pier. Official sunrise on this day was 7:11 am.

7:16 am. Similar landscape version of image above it. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Atlantic Dark Skies

Taking a vacation to the state of Florida in early February provided some beautiful night skies. The above image looks east out over the Atlantic Ocean from the third floor of the Holiday Inn Express in Daytona Beach Florida at 10:17 pm EST on Tuesday, February 5, 2019. The photograph was set up by attaching the camera's flexible Joby Gorilla Pod tripod to our balcony's railing. It is a 15 second exposure at f/2.8, 640 ISO and 11mm focal length.

Early the next morning from the same location. Image looks southeast at 6:24 am EST. At left center background is the 0.75 magnitude star Altair in the constellation Aquila. At right from lower left-to-upper right: 0.57 magnitude planet Saturn, -4.22 magnitude planet Venus, -1.90 magnitude planet Jupiter. Image is a 1.3-second exposure at f/3.2, 320 ISO and 13mm focal length. Sunrise was at 7:14 am this morning.

6:26 am EST, Friday, February 8, 2019. Looking southeast from the beach near the Amelia Island pier. Camera mounted Joby Gorilla Pod tripod placed in the sand. Image is a 2.5-second exposure at
f/3.5, ISO 640 and 18mm focal length. From lower left-to-upper right: 0.58 magnitude planet Saturn, -4.20 magnitude planet Venus, -1.91 magnitude planet Jupiter, 1.03 magnitude star Antares in the constellation Scorpius.

6:32 am. Image is a 2.5 second exposure at f/4, ISO 200 and 18mm focal length.

6:35 am. 2.5 second exposure, f/6.3, ISO 160, 18mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Light Pillars, Not To Be Confused With Aurora

Getting out of my car for work early this morning I looked up into the dark sky and witnessed faint illuminated streaks. Were these funky lined-up contrails? Or cirrus clouds? Or aurora? As they persisted, I got out my Aurora Alert app. It showed activity, but far to the north--way above Iowa, and these were south and east. That couldn't be it. So what was it?

I would correctly surmise that ice crystals had something to do with it as the temperature was zero degrees F with 92% humidity.

As it turned out, many others had also seen the event and it was already posted on the news. These were rare light pillars. Caused by suspended or lightly sinking ice crystals being reflected by city lights. The pillars appear nearly 100% vertical, though this is an optical illusion. This image looks east toward Cedar Rapids from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa at 6:16 am CST, Wednesday, February 13, 2019. iPhone 6-Plus camera.

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Day Two Of Historic Cold

Cedar Rapids, Iowa was part of the historic two-day cold blast that affected most of the midsection of the United States from January 30-31, 2019. My home weather station recorded a low temperature of -27 degrees F (above) at 6:15 am CST, Thursday, January 31. This broke the record low for the day and came just 2 degrees of equaling the all-time low for the city!

Have a seat? Not recommended. This image of our lawn chairs was converted to black-and-white via the Nik Collection Silver Efex Pro 2 Photoshop plug-in. Air temperature was -26 degrees F at time of capture.

8:34 am. The air temperature had risen to a balmy -18 degrees F. This image looks SE from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa toward cirrocumulus undulatus clouds partially covering the sun. By 10:00 am the temperature had further increased to -13 degrees F, and light snow began to fall. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Hasty Image Capture Of Sun

Historic cold in the entire Midwest caused many cancellations--including my work place. Although I was disappointed by the lack of a vibrant, well-defined sun dog on the morning of Wednesday, January 30, 2019, this image sufficed. I didn't spend much time with the photo opportunity, though, as the air temperature was -22 degrees F, with a -50 degree windchill! This two-stitch image panorama looks southeast from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 8:34 am CST. It is a 1/800 second exposure at f/16, ISO 200 and 18mm focal length. (I tested the boiling water thrown into the air and freezing exercise, and it worked...) Where are you spring?

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Omen Of What's To Come?

A frigid harbinger of the future? With forecast predictions of bone-chilling temperatures of as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit for the area in the following one-to-two days, this parhelia (better known as a sun dog), hangs ominously low in the southeastern sky on the morning of Tuesday, January 29, 2019. Air temperature was one degree above zero. Image is an iPhone 6-Plus capture from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa at 8:59 am CST. Atmospheric phenomenon of this kind are caused by the refraction of sunlight by hexagonal ice crystal columns aloft, oriented at right angles to the sun.

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Two Frosties and a Freezie

The planets Venus and Jupiter, plus the giant red star Antares, glittered in clear cold air in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the morning of Saturday, January 26, 2019. It was definitely not a celestial viewing moment for the timid as air temperature was a frigid -16 degrees F! Above, the trio are seen in the southeast sky from the border of Bowman Woods Park at 5:34 am CST. Image is a 15 second exposure at f/4.2, ISO 200 and 31mm focal length.

Another image captured from a nearby location at 5:39 am. 8 second exposure at f/6.3, ISO 200, 42mm focal length. Venus shown at magnitude -4.29, Jupiter at -1.85 and Antares at 1.03. Above Antares is the 2.87 magnitude star Al Niyat, below is the 2.81 magnitude star Tau Scorpii, both companions with Antares in the constellation Scorpius. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

Local weather conditions around the same time.

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